Iran’s President appears keen on a makeover
As world leaders gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly meet next week, all eyes will be on the US President and his new pen pal, the President of Iran. Will they meetIJ Will they shake handsIJ Will there be a ‘pull-aside'IJ Might there be even a sit-down talkIJ Nothing is certain but the fact that the White House is encouraging such chatter shows that it is responding positively to the Iranian President's recent conciliatory gestures. This is a good thing because Mr Hassan Rouhani makes a compelling argument for why the West must give him a chance to resolve the long-festering issue of Iran's contentious nuclear programme. Even though he has been in office for just about six weeks, the moderate leader who came to power on the promise of improved relations with the West, has already toned down Tehran's rhetoric against the ‘Evil Empire’. He has clarified that Iran is not seeking weapons of mass destruction and that, its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. Sceptics have pointed out that while Iran has always said this, its actions have proved otherwise. They are correct except that Mr Rouhani has made the effort to prove that he means what he says. His correspondences with US President Barack Obama have reportedly been positive (unlike the cold exchange of letters between Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Obama in 2009). His interview on Thursday to NBC, and his Op-ed in The Washington Post the same day carried messages of peace and reconciliation. There have also been other smaller gestures that have helped blunt the jagged diplomatic edges his predecessor has left behind. If Mr Mahmoud Ahmedinejad gained notoriety for denying the Holocaust, President Rouhani is making a point by having his only Jewish MP accompany him to New York. Earlier this month, he also greeted Jews on Rosh Hashana; then, in an uncharacteristically informal exchange on Twitter with US leader Nancy Pelosi's daughter, his Foreign Minister said that Iran never denied the Holocaust and “the man who was perceived to be denying it is now gone”.
Still, it is naïve to expect that Tehran under Mr Rouhani will overnight reverse its positions on all contentious matters. For example, the Iranian President still espouses a strongly anti-Israel position. In this context, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissal of President Rouhani's goodwill gestures as a “charm offensive” meant to sweet-talk the West into lifting the sanctions regime so that the Iranian economy will have some breathing space, is understandable. Indeed, there is reason to be sceptical about his ability to deliver. The Supreme leader still has the final word on all policy matters, particularly with regard to the nuclear programme and ties with the West. But the President says that the Ayatollah has given him a free hand to chart a new course that will benefit Iran. It’s early days yet, and we can only hope for the best.